Mary Ellen Kelleher first met Sogyal Rinpoche in the winter of 1986-87, in Geneva, Switzerland where she lived and worked as a carpenter. She has been his student ever since. She has supported many areas of Rigpa’s activity over the years, instructing, creating courses, video-editing thousands of hours of teachings of all the masters who have taught in Rigpa, for publication, for online distribution and for courses, and organising retreats and teaching events. She participated in the Three-year retreat in Lerab Ling and since then has spent some time every year in practice retreat. Mary Ellen is an active member in the instructor sangha that supports Lerab Ling’s activities and courses as she is lucky enough to live near Lerab Ling with her husband and their two cats.